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Handhelds Hardware

Jornada Killed, iPaq To Live On 110

Posted by Hemos from the smart-move-of-the-two dept.
MartinG writes "According to the news at handhelds.org "HP/Compaq merger completed. HP Jornada will be discontinued in favor of HP iPAQ. HP Labs will continue to support Linux on the iPAQ. In particular, we plan to complete the Linux port to the Jornada 56x." I couldn't see any further details, but interesting news nonetheless."
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Jornada Killed, iPaq To Live On More

Jornada Killed, iPaq To Live On

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  • Both were technologically great devices, but the HP seemed better built (this coming from an Ipaq owner).
    • I agree here, my Ipaq's d-pad is very flimsy at best, and the thing only accepts one button entry at a time (I have a h3630)
    • Agreed, but the iPaq seemed to be just about a half-step ahead of the Journada in terms of technology. First, it was the better screen, then it was the faster processor. Having said that, there were obviously quality problems (we purchased about 400 of the devices, so I've had experience here). Maybe now we'll see the quality of the iPaq improve.
      • I was onced asked by a friend/devleoper:

        Q1: "Why does a company buy 5 iPaqs?"
        Q2: I don't know, why does a company buy 5 iPaqs?
        A1: "So they have 1 that works for the demo."
        Q3: Is this a hardware or an operating system issue?
        A2: "operating system"

        Take a look at the Sharp Zaurus for your next purchase. If you need MS Windows desktop apps too then Qt and Qt/embedded is a great choice. IMHO.

        By the way, the Zaurus rocks. :)

        LoB
        • My only complaint with the Zaurus is battery life... it is a complete and utter pig with the backlight in use... I'm lucky if I get two hours use out of it.
          • I've heard that but not experienced it myself. I run atleast one notch down in "Front" light intensity. Because it is a frontlight and not a backlight, we must keep it turned on. When I know I'll be outside using the Z, I knock it down another notch (50%).

            I'm also wondering if charging or battery hiccups aren't causing some to have very short charge life.

            LoB
  • I love the ipaq, very happy to see them stick with what works and not roll over the ipaq
  • This would be interesting if it meant more commericial support for Linux on something other than ia32 machines - still something of a Cinderella - but it is difficult to draw that conclusion from this article alone.

    But that is right, isn't it?

  • cool (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Cyn ( 50070 )
    it's nice to see a company willing to work with developers to support their old products under installations they were never intended to work with.

  • I'm glad.. (Score:2, Informative)

    by Marx_Mrvelous ( 532372 )
    The iPaq (despite sounding so much like "iMac) is the better handheld. t's really amazing all the uses for it, plus it has much better accessories.

    I'm happy with *all* the decisions they've made so far, really.
    • Great. If you are in the market for a $500 pda, then sure, go for the ipaq. The problem with this decision, is that there are no low cost ipaqs.

      • I got my iPaq 3150 for $130USD. It doesn't have a color screen and only has 16MB flash ROM and 16MB RAM but it does still have the 206MHz SA1110 processor and uses all the same expasion packs as other iPaqs.

  • Uhh, Yesterday's Thread? (Score:3, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 09, 2002 @07:35AM (#3489797)

    HP/COMPAQ Publishes OS/product Roadmap [slashdot.org]
  • I really thought they would have gone for the more obvious name:

    HPaq.

  • uh oh (Score:5, Funny)

    by nomadic ( 141991 ) <.moc.liamg. .ta. .dlrowcidamon.> on Thursday May 09, 2002 @07:39AM (#3489815) Homepage
    "Jornada killed, IPAQ to live on"? That sounds mighty suspicious to me...

    Alright, I think the Jornada did it, in the conservatory, with a compact flash memory card.

  • awesome (Score:4, Interesting)

    by tps12 ( 105590 ) on Thursday May 09, 2002 @07:42AM (#3489822) Homepage Journal
    This is great. I'm pumped to eventually upgrade to a Linux PDA, once the networking issues are ironed out. The Compaq/Linux partnership has been impressive.

    Personally, I have found HP products (especially laptops and PDAs) to use an inferior, almost navy blue, plastic that feels brittle and rough. Compaq has a tendency to use silver "accents" that I find a little gaudy. Maybe with Palm's recent troubles, HP/Compaq (anyone know if they will be called HPaq?) can hire away one of the original designers (just not the guy who did the m505 or whatever...yuck!).

    I think companies tend to underestimate the importance of quality materials. Yes, what's inside counts, but the heft of a thing, the sturdiness, these are the aspects that appeal to our most primitive sense of utility and function. Never disregard the subconscious effects of the tactile world around us.

    • I think not. The HP Jornada 500/600 series are aluminum. They are very durable. I can attest to this, and I actually drove over my Jornada 545 at one point. It continued to function for 2 years after that.

      Palms on the other hand, are terrible. The only Palm that feels comfortable to me is the Palm V. The Palm VII feels like some kind of badly-designed remote control, and the Palm m505s are not terrible attractive.

      I hope that HP/Compaq go the way of Sony and make something that looks pretty nice, with no major dressing.

      -WS

      • I actually drove over my Jornada 545 at one point. It continued to function for 2 years after that.

        Party on. I've got a 545 too, and damned if it isn't a thug of a PDA. Its a hair thicker than the rest, but I have beaten the hell out of mine, and its still ticking. I've really been impressed with its reliability. Umm... except for Windows CE - but that's not really at issue here.

        The iPaq, on the other hand, has this vague George Jetson-look to it. I want a PDA, not a sprocket. (whatever the hell those are) Maybe someone could stand up for ipaqs out there? I'd be interested on hearing about their crashworthiness. (inertia crash, not Windows crash)

        PDA Clue: My guess is that it was Professor Palm, in the kitchen, with the silver limited-edition stylus.
        • I'm actually looking to get a new IPaq, so I would love to hear a few crash-testing stories as well.

          Considering how much the darned things cost, they had better be bullet-proof...

          -WS

    • Seems like all people are lamenting or praising here is the plastic casing and buttons.

      The two devices were almost functionally identical. We're not losing anything here.
  • Typical... Just when I buy myself a juicy little HP Jornada :(

    I did dither about buying an IPAQ, but the use of those "jacket" things to add CF or PCMCIA capability just didn't appeal. At least the Jornada has an inbuilt CF slot.

    Cheers
    Chris

  • Thanks HP (Score:2, Interesting)

    by pstreck ( 558593 )
    This is great that hp is keeping handhelds.org alive. Handhelds.org has produced a lot of great software over the past couple of years and made things like the Sharp Zaurus possible. The death of the jornada is unfortunate but it seems that hp is just trying to keep the best products out on the market. Thanks HP for not killing off handhelds.org!
  • ... here [hp.com].
    Smart Handhelds Decision:

    The Compaq iPAQ(TM) Pocket PC, re-named the HP iPAQ Pocket PC, will be our smart handheld platform. The best of the current HP Jornada technology will be engineered into the platform. Jornada products will be phased out of the market in 2002. HP will continue to innovate in wireless, mobility and voice technology. HP also will offer the iPAQ Blackberry device for end-to-end wireless e-mail solutions, under the HP brand.

    Tad sad, considering the 'sleek form factor' of the Jornadas. Ah well. ;)

  • HP / Compaq PDA .. more of a merger (Score:3, Informative)

    by Kryptic Knight ( 96187 ) on Thursday May 09, 2002 @08:00AM (#3489891)


    The HP website has a Product Roadmap [hp.com] in its press releases.

    It makes a quite nice read, especially if you're a heavy Compaq server site.

    Smart Handhelds

    Decision: The Compaq iPAQ(TM) Pocket PC, re-named the HP iPAQ Pocket PC, will be our smart handheld platform. The best of the current HP Jornada technology will be engineered into the platform. Jornada products will be phased out of the market in 2002.

    HP will continue to innovate in wireless, mobility and voice technology. HP also will offer the iPAQ Blackberry device for end-to-end wireless e-mail solutions, under the HP brand.

    So evidently we're going to see IPaq's emerging with some of the good Jornada technology integrated. Lets hope its well done, rather than shoehorned in.
  • "Jornada killed, iPAQ to live on."

    "New stuff is developed for Jornada. iPAQ support still continues."

    Doesn't that sound a little contradictory? From the latter you could imagine it's iPAQ killed and Jornada lives on...

  • a nice little handheld one can wirelessly use as a plan9 graphic terminal, even listening to mp3s etc.

    if only i could afford one :(

  • I have to admit that I foresaw the merging and subsequent ramifications of PC hardware and support divisions, and the HPUX/Tru64(sp?) divisions. I completely missed the PDA divisions. What else has been overlooked I wonder?

    It must be wonderful to wake up and smell the coffee... in Brazil!
  • So now we have one less PDA offering. The Jornada had some features that Compaq wasn't interested in putting into their devices. Mergers tend to hurt competition by removing offerings from the market.
  • Has anybody looked much at the Game Park 32 [gamepark.co.kr]? There have been a couple of mentions of it here.

    Imagine a cross between the GBA and the iPAQ, kind of. The form factor is large GBA, the screen is bigger (with more colors) than an iPAQ, it uses SMC cards, has a USB port, a cell phone type expansion port for RF networking and stereo speakers.

    Ports of Doom, Descent, Wolfenstein, Emulators for GBC, GBA (possible), SMS and SNES are all working or in progress. Since gcc for the GP32 is out, MAME, 2600 and more ports and emulators should be out soon.

    The current list is about $160USB.

  • Didn't we talk about this already? (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Do we have to keep rehashing information? Can we talk about new and interesting things every once in a while?

    We discussed this issue earlier this week... The editors are really getting lame.

  • FWIW, you can get the LINUX Distro for IPAQ.... (Score:5, Informative)

    by 8127972 ( 73495 ) on Thursday May 09, 2002 @08:56AM (#3490169)
    At Ipaq LINUX [ipaqlinux.com], the familiar project [handhelds.org], or at Intimate Handhelds [handhelds.org].

    (Just in case somebody isn't aware of this)

  • how looks matter (Score:3, Funny)

    by WildBeast ( 189336 ) on Thursday May 09, 2002 @09:05AM (#3490210) Journal
    Admit it, the Jornada wasn't too sexy looking to begin with so that's why they will be stopping it's production in favor of the sleek looking Ipaq
    • Not sure if this is sarcastic or not, but the iPAQ is only second-ugliest after the new Cassiopeia [amazon.com].

      The Jornada was IMHO the best looking of the PPC2002 devices and will only be superceded by the upcoming LOOX [fujitsu-siemens.com] in terms of sexiness ;-)

      However, you're definitely right about how much looks matter. The iPAQ was just riddled with quality control problems and design flaws (no onboard memory expansion, no simultaneous button presses, dust under the screen, digitizer problems, etc.), but it won the PocketPC battle by a long shot merely because of hype and its 'sleek' silver color (though I personally think it looks like shite).

      It's dissappointing to see the Jornada go the way of the dinosaurs because I will never consider an iPAQ after Compaq's history with quality control (not to mention the butt-ugly design). Hopefully another manufacturer will set up to the plate to replace it (Dell?) ... and PLEASE Microsoft, let them design their PocketPCs the way they want to - the limitations on button arrangement, screen type, etc. just stifles innovation and expansion.
    • Ipaq sleek? It's the ugliest PDA I've ever seen!
  • If you want a linux pda, why pay the ms tax? And fund more predatory behavior? Just get a zaurus.

    Check out opie.handhelds.org/ [handhelds.org] For a great distro for handhelds. supports ipaq, zaurus, and I think others. This project, could do wonders, for unifying linux PDAs on a single platform.

    With countless stories every day on how Microsoft is evil, and Microsoft practices must be stopped ( more articles than I could stomach usually ), I'm surprised on how eagerly slashdot jumps on their products. Guess what, you're funding them!!

    By buying their products, you're speaking with the voice that counts, your money.

    The zaurus is a great tool. I love mine. Everyone was raving yesterday about how the clie had a software writing area that's hideable, guess what, the zaurus has that. And it has a built in keyboard, and a screen keyboard, and a unicode keyboard...

    And don't talk about software either. Because, there are tons of ARM linux software. In places like zaurus.sourceforge.com [sourceforge.com] http://zaurusoft.com [zaurusoft.com] http://opie.handhelds.com [handhelds.com] http://myzaurus.com [myzaurus.com] http://ipkgfind.handhelds.org [handhelds.org] http://www.debian.org/ports/arm [debian.org]

    so go ahead. complain that microsoft is bullying the educational institutes, that their licenses prevent OEMs from distributing alternative OSes, that they want to prevent us from being able to buy computers without paying them everytime...

    Then go buy their friggin' products.

    • You must be new here. Heres how SlashDot works..

      Bitch about MS... Then buy products with MS stuff installed.

      Bitch about MPAA... Then go see the new Spider-Man movie.

      Bitch about RIAA... Go buy some CDs.

      I hope this helps.
    • My thought when I read that Compaq were supportive of Linux was "Great, I wonder how much an iPaq with Linux costs?"

      So I went and looked, and discovered that you can't actually buy an iPaq with Linux. Supportive my ass.
    • Exactly. I tried to buy a Palm, but they wouldn't let me buy one without PalmOS (let along give me a discount). Fuck that!

      Also, when i tried to buy a Microwave, I told the shopping assistant that I wanted a discount because I was going to run Linux on the thing, and not the proprietry Panasonic software they had running on it. I ain't paying no software tax! The shopping assistant didn't know what Linux was. What a loser. Linux rocks man. Everyone who doesn't know anything about computers or Linux must be an IDIOT. I'm so cool cause I know about Linux. I'm a good Javas programmer too.

      (there's my rendition of a typical /.er)

  • This is too bad (Score:2, Insightful)

    by chafey ( 108827 )
    I own a Jornada 568 and prefer its form factor to that of the iPaq. The iPaq requires a very thick sleeve to support add in cards compared to the Jornada which does not. My coworker's iPaq is quite a bit bulkier with a sleeve and wireles adapter compared to my Jornada with a wireless adapter. I haven't used an iPaq so maybe I am missing something, but from a form factor view, this doesn't seem like the best decision.
    • How's your 568 for games? I'm thinking of getting one, despite HP's intent to kill it off.

      Specifically, do you run any emulators on it?
    • yup, that's one reason why I went with the Zaurus. It too has the CF slot builtin but also has a SD/MMC slot as well. The slide-out keyboard and Linux were the final hooks that got me to buy the Zaurus.

      It'll be interesting to see if the HP iPaq gets builtin expansion and I applaud their Bluetooth support.

      LoB
  • The ipaq has a better name in the marketplace. If you look at their roadmap you will see this is what they have done with all the products. If one product has a better name in the marketplace it is kept.
  • There is some rumors going on the news sites that theres a 400MHz iPaq with 128 MB ram on the way, more that is more usefull as a mobile entertainment PDA than the current high-end model (for games, video, divx, mpeg, mp3, etc). Dunno if its using the old StrongARM family or the new Intel Xscale architecture (ARM based).
  • ...was that it was attached to the rather shapely hip of Denise "Dr. Christmas Jones" Richards in the James Bond opus "The World Is Not Enough." It also provided the most humor: The notion that Richards could use the Jornada to deactivate a nuclear warhead hurtling through a Siberian pipeline at 75 MPH.
  • http://www.hp.com/hpinfo/newsroom/press/07may02b.h tm [hp.com]

    This details what they are and are not getting ride of. It looks like most of what is staying is all going to be under the HP name as well. Very little Compaq left. They are also getting rid of True64 and integrating the good parts of it, or what they think are good, into HP-UX.

    This is from HP and to their customers / consumers so if you use any Compaq / HP stuff it is worth a read.

  • Jordan to be killed off?? Where will I get my breast fix??!?

    Oh, Jornada.

    Whoops, my mistake.

  • If you had read this article [slashdot.org] you would have known that.

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